This weekend the level crossing
at Cookham station was closed for major repairs. The track has been lifted
6 inches and 23 tons of ballast used to bring the track up. These bags
each contain a ton of ballast and they had two bags left over on the site
of the old signal box. It was a major job with a gang of up to 20 men
involved and the head of engineering on the job said he hoped it would
last longer than the last repair - a mere 18 months!

Railway
Work in Progress

Work finished on time on Sunday
afternoon and the tarmac was still warm in the late afternoon sun.

The
sound of the barrier and the train

We think the half hourly sound
of the level crossing going down is one of those reassuring sounds of
Cookham Rise. And our level crossing takes quite a pounding. As well
as all that traffic the train runs over our level crossing
approximately 40 times a day. It's a busy little branch line, and we
welcome the repair work.....

Billy
on the Line

For the record, there were no
trains on the branch line throughout Sunday when this picture was taken of
Billy on the line!